A lithographic apparatus is a machine that applies a desired pattern onto a substrate, usually onto a target portion of the substrate. A lithographic apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In such a case, a patterning device, which is alternatively referred to as a mask or a reticle, may be used to generate a circuit pattern to be formed on an individual layer of the IC. This pattern can be transferred onto a target portion (e.g. including part of, one, or several dies) on a substrate (e.g. a silicon wafer). Transfer of the pattern is typically via imaging onto a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist) provided on the substrate. In general, a single substrate will contain a network of adjacent target portions that are successively patterned. Conventional lithographic apparatus include so-called steppers, in which each target portion is irradiated by exposing an entire pattern onto the target portion at once, and so-called scanners, in which each target portion is irradiated by scanning the pattern through a radiation beam in a given direction (the “scanning”-direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate parallel or anti-parallel to this direction. It is also possible to transfer the pattern from the patterning device to the substrate by imprinting the pattern onto the substrate.
In lithography, there is a tendency towards substrates having a larger diameter which requires the substrate table to have a large diameter. At the same time, there is a tendency towards higher scanning velocities and scanning accelerations, which requires the substrate table to be lightweight. In order to be able to achieve a desired acceleration, relatively lightweight substrate table structures are desired. Such lightweight structures may, given the high accelerations to which they are subjected, tend to exhibit bending mode excitations, torsion mode excitations, or other effects. As a result thereof, focusing errors may occur when projection the pattern on the substrate.